Maui A to Z: Agriculture

How appropriate for the beginning of the A to Z challenge. The thing I love most in the world, agriculture! Since moving to Hawaii eight years ago, we’ve had the opportunity to visit many farms on Maui. Looking for lavender, papaya, coffee, wine, hydroponically grown lettuce, seed corn, grass fed beef, sugarcane, or mangos? We have that. Our family’s top two agriculture tours have been of Maui Wine and Haleakala Ranch. Both were private events for the Maui County Farm Bureau, and wow, did they go all out.

Sustainability, Grass-fed Beef, and Chicken Tractors all come to mind when I think of Haleakala Ranch.

The people caring for the land in this corner of the earth are going above and beyond to make sure they get it right. Their biggest battles are weeds and water. Too much of one and not enough of the other. The well trained cattle dogs were the icing on the cake during this tour.

Haleakala Ranch is also looking at diversifying their operations by marketing venison sticks, and soon, they will be turning some of their Koa wood into guitars. Stay tuned for more info about this development!

Bonus Family Favorite on Maui:

Apple Bananas!

Once you’ve had one of these sweet little fruits, you’ll never want to go back to that store bought Cavendish.

I want to Maui when I was in elementary school because my grandma had a condo there. Mostly I remember reading Nancy Drew and tracking the progress of a banana tree (now I want to go looking for those photos) and I only have vague memories of doing vacationy stuff. I was a strange kid. Interestingly, my other grandma was a beef farmer! In Indiana though.

There is a lot of farming throughout the islands, but yet we import 90% of our food. Land prices are high, water is scarce, and mainland farmers can do it all for less. It’s a tough place to be a farmer in spite of the amazing weather!